The cluster is a geographically proximate group of interrelated companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by cohesions and complementarities. The cluster model converges upon the circumstances that support firm competitiveness at the national scale. It is an economic development model that stimulates collaboration among institutions to accelerate the exchange of information and technology. A venture capital firm in structuring a fund aims to limit the obligation of investors to the amount of their investment and circumvent a double charge of taxation (once when returns on investments are realized by the fund and a second time when the investors receive the proceeds of their investment from the fund). The most important customers for these new technologies may be beyond US borders, however, where breaks for a solid education are hard to come by and a Western credential carries a lot of weight. Changes and adaptations have become customs and are embedded in the social norms of the Valley. But it so far cannot escape from its contract manufacturing past. It does not have the profundity of competences and capabilities, nor does it have the scale to take advantage of a more networked-oriented internet-driven economy. Entrepreneurial financing is an important mechanism to engender economic advantages. In particular, the science and technology incubators play a vital role in supporting entrepreneurship and economic growth. To date, few studies have looked meticulously at the strategies and policies that are crucial for creating an empowering environment for high-tech start-ups.

Bill Campbell did not describe himself as a workaholic, although as president of Claris he did acknowledge to working 16-hour days, having nightly business dinners, touring frequently and working weekends. After four years as head of Apple Computer’s sales and marketing effort, Campbell was connected more with hardware than software. Apple and Google shared personal ties, with Apple board members Bill Campbell and Al Gore, the former U.S. vice president, serving as advisers to Google in its formative days.

John Doerr, chair of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, called him “our SuperCoach — colorful confidante and mentor for leaders and whole teams.” Doerr brought Campbell to Google to serve as an informal adviser to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Campbell was influential in the hiring of Eric Schmidt to be Google’s chief executive in August 2001. Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidtrecalled in Forbes magazine that Campbell’s supreme gift was knowing how to goad and inspire people.

It’s hard to know what Google would have been like without him. He was present at every decision of consequence. He understood the people. He would normally say very little during my staff meetings and just observe. And then I and other executives would individually make a trek to his Intuit office in Palo Alto for his feedback. He wasn’t a technical wizard, but he understood how to solve human problems and motivate people. He would have been a good coach in any industry.

Bill Campbell viewed himself as Silicon Valley’s confidant. He was very careful to say, “I’m here to help you. I don’t want anything in return. I don’t want any attention.” If he had had a public persona, it would’ve made him less effective. This was very genuine. Some people want power or fame. He wanted love. He wanted to be appreciated. And he was.

The Silicon Valley culture efficaciously captures the prevailing ideological elements of Silicon Valley, mingling celebration of technology with a attraction with what the museum’s brochures refers to as the gizmos and gadgets produced by Valley companies. An obsession with speed: work late, work long, work fast, work smart, borrow and assimilate technical knowledge at the vanguard that is not already possessed, and enter the market place with an sophisticated solution needed by many with astounding features at a low cost point. A sale is incongruous to harvest a high price if the firm is seen as running out of funds and despairing for a savior. For a firm that cannot draw outside financing, an inside round can afford convenient “backstop financing.”

A Silicon Valley Confidant

Campbell was intensely involved in Silicon Valley’s start-up culture as well. Fortune’s Jennifer Reingold wrote that Campbell was careful not to take credit for his work, even while industry leaders spoke of Campbell “as if he’s some kind of profane cosmic mash-up of Oprah, Yoda and Joe Paterno.” Teams thrive to create synergy to respond to pressures of condensed product-planning life cycles, product competitiveness, and Silicon Valley’s parent companies’ influences. Global competition in the high technology industry is also at work here, where-as Campbell mentioned above–speed, quality, cost, and innovation propel strategy and structure.

Campbell coached the Columbia University football team in the 1970s (albeit with a losing record.) He then served as CEO of Intuit in the mid-1990s, then chairman from 1998 until January-2016, when he became chairman emeritus. Campbell was also chairman of the board of trustees at Columbia University from 2005 until 2014. Previously in his career, he had worked at Kodak and Apple, where he worked as a marketing executive. He was an Apple director from 1997 until 2014. His association with Apple dates back to 1983, when he enrolled the company as vice president of marketing. In 1983, Campbell took a chance by taking a job at Apple under John Sculley and Steve Jobs. Campbell left a position at Kodak, which was a $14 billion company at the time, for Apple, which was around $90 million then. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said, “when Bill joined Apple’s board, the company was on the brink of collapse. He not only helped Apple survive, but he’s led us to a level of success that was simply unimaginable back in 1997.”

The anonymities of the trade become no secrecies; but are as it were in the air, and children learn many of them instinctively. In Silicon Valley, good work is rightly cherished; inventions and improvements in machinery, in processes and the general organization of the business have their qualities promptly discussed: if one man starts a new idea, it is taken up by others and combined with suggestions of their own; and thus it becomes the source of further new ideas. According to Campbell, the Silicon Valley’s determination for reliability was the catalyst behind the development of the planar process, and then of the integrated circuit. He confounded things by noting that the high tech industry’s drive to clutch its producers’ profits served to direct both Silicon Valley semiconductor and tube companies to look for saleable markets.